Did you know there are over twenty-five million business profiles on Instagram? What’s more, over 200 million Instagram users visit a business profile at least once every day. (https://business.instagram.com/getting-started?ref=igb_carousel). This means if you are not making use of Instagram marketing, you are seriously missing out!
For the purposes of this article, we will assume you have already created an Instagram for your business. Just in case you’ve been living under a rock though, Instagram Stories is a feature which allows you to share content that is automatically deleted after twenty-four hours. They are great for social media advertising, but because you can’t always rely on hashtags and tagging to get seen, they can also be a challenge.
Experts from Social Status, a social media marketing agency Melbourne-wide, share five tips on how to craft a high performing Instagram Story that sells.
1. Be creative
If you want to use social media advertising to grow your business, you need to be fresh. Without a social media marketing strategy for your Instagram Stories, you are wasting time and money. For effective Instagram marketing and online advertising you need to:
- Ask for input: what do your customers want?
- Use stickers: whether you use a countdown to build excitement or a question to engage your viewers, it is important to be interactive!
- Tag related brands or 'regram' community posts: this shows you are involved in your industry and value your customers.
2. Highlight your brand
When users watch Stories, they go through them quickly and with not much thought. Branding is an essential part of Instagram marketing and social media advertising, so begin with who you are and any key messages.
3. Go live
Instagram Live gives account holders the opportunity to broadcast in real-time. This is an awesome opportunity for businesses to show the human face of their brand! With Instagram live you can engage directly with your followers.
Promotions, behind the scenes footage and Q&As are all great ways to take advantage of the Instagram Live feature and use social media advertising to grow your business.
4. Use sound
As our experts at Social Status Media Agency can attest, multisensory experiences are often more engaging than just visual ones. Data shows that Stories with voice-overs or music generally do better than ads without any sound (https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/what-makes-a-high-performing-Story-according-to-instagram-infographic/559991/).
5. Include a call to action
Social media for business is all about being interactive and giving the consumer a role to play. Calls to action like ‘swipe up to buy’, ‘check out our shop’ or ‘leave a comment’ help engage your viewers and start a conversation.
Facebook found that campaigns which emphasised a call to action had an 89% chance of driving more conversions than those that did not (https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/what-makes-a-high-performing-Story-according-to-instagram-infographic/559991/).
Bonus tip!
6. Add links
Okay, okay, we know we said five, but here’s a bonus online advertising tip for our social media gurus out there…
If you have over 10K followers, it is now possible to add links to your Story. Users can then simply swipe up to get to the linked website. This is a great way to increase traffic to your shop and encourage your audience to buy, buy, buy!
If you are lost amongst this talk of social media advertising, or if you want to grow your business with Instagram marketing, a digital marketing agency may be for you. Contact us at Social Status and find out how you can use social media advertising to grow your business.
